


Know Him Blind (the Looking For You remix)

by schweet_heart



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, First Meetings, Love at First Sight, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:08:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24471808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schweet_heart/pseuds/schweet_heart
Summary: “And then my soul saw you and it kind of went ‘Oh, there you are. I’ve been looking for you.’” – Iain S. ThomasTwo men walk into a bar. What happens next is history.
Relationships: Gwaine/Percival (Merlin)
Comments: 37
Kudos: 138
Collections: Camelot Remix 2020





	Know Him Blind (the Looking For You remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aeris444](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aeris444/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Soulmate](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1205179) by [Aeris444](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aeris444/pseuds/Aeris444). 



> Dear Aeris444,
> 
> It was a pleasure to remix one of your lovely fics for this fest! Perwaine is a little outside of my usual wheelhouse, but I enjoyed having the chance to try something new. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it 🙂
> 
> With many thanks to the mods and to D for the super-speedy beta. You're the best! <3

The Rising Sun was always busy on a Saturday night, and by rights it ought to have made Percival feel more comfortable. Loud music, lots of people, and plenty of alcohol to drown his sorrows if (or when) the evening went awry—there was a reason why he’d insisted on meeting his blind date at his favourite club, and it wasn’t just because he liked the atmosphere. 

The familiar surroundings, however, did little to quell the nervousness in his gut as he stepped inside, a chill of frost still tingling at his extremities where they’d been exposed to the winter air. He probably shouldn’t have worn the short-sleeved top, now that he thought about it, but it was a sort of instinct for him by now; the silver mesh emphasised the curve of his biceps and helped to weed out the easily intimidated (and obsessively athletic) before going to the trouble of ordering a drink. That way, it didn’t sting quite so badly when they inevitably brushed him off for someone less emasculating.

Dating did not come easily to him, even now. At school, he had always been too tall not to attract attention, but too soft-spoken to do anything about it, and while there had been plenty of interest from girls, who had liked him for his gentle strength, he had quickly discovered that he didn’t swing that way. It also hadn’t helped that he’d been born with achromatopsia, an inability to see anything but shades of black and white. It was a rare condition, one that made him enviable and pitiable at the same time; he had a soulmate somewhere, they told him, but he’d never see in colour unless they met, and the chances of that were astronomical. Percival had given up on the idea by the time he was twelve. 

He was only here because Leon had insisted, really. Leon was a strange and unnerving friend at the best of times, but occasionally he got this look in his eyes that Percival had never been able to understand, one which generally presaged some deep and unexpected piece of wisdom. 

“You have that kind of face,” he’d said, when Percival asked how Leon had guessed his favourite drink the day they’d met. “Besides. I’ve met you before.” 

Had it been anyone else, Percival would have laughed, deciding that he was full of it, but on Leon, the mystical voodoo act was convincing, especially when he smiled. He had long, curly hair, which he wore pulled back away from his face, and a darker beard that ought to have made him look like a hippy but didn’t, off-set as it was by the gravity of his gaze. He reminded Percival, privately, of nothing so much as a cheerful old tortoise, without the wrinkles but keeping the home on his back, since he was never without his trusty rucksack. How he managed to travel, work, write, and still maintain a seemingly feckless existence, Percival didn’t know, but it was shit like that which made him believe Leon was serious when he got in one of his moods.

“You’re going to love him,” he had said of Gwaine, the man Percival had come here to meet, looking into his eyes with a disconcerting urgency. “Trust me. Promise you’ll come?”

“Yeah, all right.” Percival did not have high hopes. “When shall I meet you?” 

He could see Leon now, over by the bar—it was hard, sometimes, to find someone in a crowd, because if the lights were low all the faces looked the same, but Leon did have a way of standing out. Maybe because Percival knew him so well. The man sitting next to him was nursing a drink, something frothy that Percival would no doubt hate, and he was already braced for disappointment when the man half turned towards the door. It was then that Percival saw his eyes. 

Percival had once heard of love at first sight being described like a flash of lightning from a clear blue sky, but this was nothing like that. The feeling rolled up through his body in a gentle wave, starting at his feet and moving up to the crown of his head, sweeping away the butterflies in his stomach with its sudden heat. Gwaine had dark hair and even darker eyes, the slightest hint of stubble at his jaw, and the moment he saw Percival he broke into a blinding grin.

“Hey there, handsome,” he said, as soon as Percival came within earshot. “What’s a bloke like you doing in a place like this?” 

“Looking for you,” Percival answered with perfect sincerity, and watched as Gwaine threw back his head and laughed. Colour bled into his features more slowly, starting with his mouth and spreading outwards like a slow-motion starburst, and though the effect was shocking in its intensity, it also felt right. Natural. Like it had happened before.

_But things are going to be different now_ , Percival told himself, sliding onto the stool beside Leon and ordered a drink. Everything was going to change, now that they’d found each other again.

  
  



End file.
